From:
Helle Bechmann-Pasquinucci
Universita degli Studi di Pavia
Italy
I am shocked by your sad news. Asher meant a lot to me. He has been a
fantastic support to me for all the years I have known him, and I can
not even begin to imagine what it will mean now that he is no longer
there. I will miss him a lot; our discussions, his advice and
suggestions.
Thank you very much for writing to me to tell me so soon. If there is
anything I can do please let me know.
Please, give my most sincere condolance to your mother and your sister.
Yours sincerely,
Helle
------
I have been wanting to write to you for days, but it is so difficult to
find the right words.
When I sent my first email to Asher in November 1994, I had no idea that I
was making contact with the person who would become my scientific
reference point for a decade. But Asher quickly became the one I could
and would rely upon for help, advice and suggestions. The one who answered
my questions, gave scientific directions and commented on new ideas. The
one I trusted unconditionally. In every single folder, in every single
pile of paper that I have in my office, there are traces of Asher.
When I first wrote to Asher, I had read some of his papers and knew his
book, but I knew nothing about the person behind the name. But not only
did I find someone who always answered my questions promptly, I found far
more than that, I found a friend. For 10 years Asher was a part of my
life, throught hard times and good times, childbirth and graduation,
together with you sending gifts and encouragement. Never futher away than
an email.
Asher was an extrodinary person. I will miss him a lot --- already do.
Yours sincerely,
Helle
From:
Charles H. Bennett
IBM Research
I am so sorry to hear of Asher's passing. I will miss his
scientific insight and advice, but even more his humor and stuborn
integrity. I remember when one of his colleagues complained about
Asher's always rejecting his manuscript when they were sent to him to
referee. Asher said in effect,
"You should thank me. I am only trying to protect your reputation." He
often pretended to consult me, a fellow atheist, on matters of religious
protocol. As we waited in line to eat the hors d'oeuvres at a
conference in Evanston, he said, "There is a prayer Jews traditionally
say when they do something new that they have never done before. I am
about to eat a new kind of non-Kosher food. Do you think I should say
the prayer?" My wife and grown children, who are visiting us this new
year, and remember Asher from when we all lived in Cambridge 20 years
ago, join me in sending you our condolences for this sudden loss of an
irrepressible and irreplaceable person. Please convey our feelings
especially to your mother at this difficult time.
Charles
From:
Sir Michael Berry
University of Bristol
UK
Yes, I was shocked too, to learn of your father's death from Petra Scudo who
called and told me earlier this evening. I am sure you know the esteem and
affection he earned from the world community of physicists over many years.
This will be a terribly difficult period for you and your family. Nothing I
can write will lessen the pain, but be sure that with such an example of a
positive life you will eventually emerge from the tunnel of grief into the
bright light.
Please accept my very warm condolences, also to your mother, Michael Berry
From:
Gilles Brassard
University of Montreal
Canada
I am totally shocked by the news, albeit less than you for sure.
Please accept my most sincere condolences, and pass them to
your mother, Aviva, whom I remember with fondest memories.
I wish I could be present for the funeral, which is of course
impossible with so little warning. But please be assured that
my heart will be with you.
Asher was a very dear friend and a wonderful scientist.
We will all miss him.
Sincerement
- Gilles Brassard
From:
Dagmar Bruss
University of Hannover
Germany
I just read your sad news and still cannot believe that
Asher is not with us anymore. At the moment I do not
find many words - let me just tell you that he will
be deeply missed by many, both as a colleague and as a
friend.
Over the years Asher and I have exchanged many e-mails,
starting from my first shy question about some topic in
physics. He promoted me and trusted me. I learned so much
from him, and am grateful for everything that he gave me.
I will miss him as a wonderful person and as a dear friend.
Please give my heartfelt concolences also to Aviva. It will
be a very sad and difficult time for you, and I wish you
that it becomes easier by helping each other and sharing
your memories of Asher.
Tonight I will light a candle for Asher.
Yours, Dagmar
From:
Adan Cabello Quintero
Universidad de Sevilla
Spain
Thank you for telling me the bad news. I don't have words to express
what I'm feeling right now.
All I know is that Asher has been one of the most important persons in
my life.
We all should follow and keep alive his example.
Warmest regards,
Adan Cabello
From:
Richard Cleve
University of Calgary
Canada
Thanks for letting me know. It is indeed very sad.
I met him at a few of the Torino workshops of the late 1990s. I remember
when I was just starting to learn about nonlocality, I was asking many
people questions (and, as a somewhat green outsider, my questions were
not very clearly expressed). He immediately understood what I was
talking about, and referred me to a paper of Tsirelson showing that what
I was after is impossible. He also referred me to Hardy's "paradox"
result (Bub's version of it), which I found pretty interesting. A couple
of years later, he politely steered me (and a couple of others) away
from a line of work that he thought was not that interesting (and I
think he was right about that). His kind-hearted email started out "Dear
Friends, ...".
He was a generous scholar. I had been intending to send him an email
thanking him for some references he provided me with a couple of years
ago, and reporting on the status of that project, but, unfortunately, I
never got around to it.
Although my interactions with him were in fact very few, I was affected
by him, and will miss him.
--Richard
From:
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji
Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris
France
I am terribly sad to hear that Asher passed away. I had a very great
admiration for him, for his depth thinking, for his modesty, for his
kindness. He was a real scientist and his human qualities were precious.
We will all miss him.
With my deep sympathy,
Claude
From:
Bernard d'Espagnat
University of Paris, Orsay
France
The terrible new about yor father makes me more shocked and sorry than I
can tell, and my wife fully shares my grief. And we think also of Mrs Peres.
This must be an awful blow for you both. Please share with her the testimony
of our very deep sympathy.
Bernard dčEspagnat
From:
Willy De Baere
Ghent University
Belgium
we share your extreme sadness on account of your father's passing away.
your message shocked and impressed me as
much as you and your family (in the first place your mother, Aviva)
and, no doubt, as many many others worldwide.
To me, as a person and as a physicist, Asher has always been a foremost
example. I will never forget - and I have always admired - his thoroughnes
and perseverance in analysing and solving fundamental physical -
and, in fact, all kinds - of problems.
His supreme intellectual abilities were acknowleged worldwide.
I had the privilage to meet Asher several times, and he even visited our
institute in Ghent, Belgium - together with Aviva - some years ago,
on the occasion of which he gave an impressing lecture.
Yet, even in these sad days, life goes on. Therefore, I wish you and your
family, to begin with Aviva, much strength to overcome this very great
loss.
Willy and Bernadette De Baere - van de Perre
From:
Stanley Deser
Brandeis University
I was just rereading your father's wonderful autobiography
written for his big birthday and marvelling again at his
vitality and of course survivorship; we had similar early
trajectories.
We knew each other since the late fifties and it was always
a pleasure to meet and argue with Asher, on any topic; I regret
there was no final chance to see him.
Please convey my condolences to your family.
Sincerely
Stanley Deser
From:
Lajos Diosi
Research Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics
Budapest, Hungary
the memory of the month in '86 at Technion and in Israel with your father
has constantly been influencing and dominating my soul, I never forgot a
second of it. Your father did more for friends, for colleagues, for us
than the loudmouthed. I never thought such a sudden thing could happen.
Accept my mere words of sympathy in the days of sorrow and find, please,
some time to convey them to Aviva.
My regards,
Lajos
From:
Artur Ekert
University of Cambridge
UK
I am so sorry to hear this very sad news. Asher will be much missed by us all.
He was a great physicist, a friend, and a wonderful person.
Artur
From:
Yonina Eldar
Technion
I was so deeply sorry and shocked to hear the horrible news. What a great
man your father was.
So humble, nice and patient which is a rare combination to see with his
great intellectual achievements.
He was so outreaching to me when I first came to the Technion, despite
his "status".
I heard the news this afternoon and was completely shocked;
unfortunately, I
had to teach at the time of the funeral so I couldn't make it.
Thanks so much for the personal note and for your address; I appreciate
it a lot.
I will definitely come by this week. I am sure you know what a great man
he was but I will share with you some of what I had the privilege to see.
May you never know sorrow again;
Yonina
From:
Mario Feingold
Ben Gurion University
Israel
I just got the news about Asher. This is very sad. He seemed to be fluorishing
at his 70-th birthday meeting. Very sad. Please accept my condoleances. I
deeply participate to your sorrow. Please convey my feeling to Aviva and the
rest of the family.
Best regards, Mario
From:
Christopher A. Fuchs
Bell Labs
Asher was a great man, and in many ways, far beyond a friend to me---a
father actually. I don't know whether he knew that, but I hope he did.
In physics he had a great deal to do with my learning to stand on my own
two feet. Without his support in 1994, I very likely would have stayed
crawling. He gave me confidence in myself like no one else.
I looked back in my email records after talking to Aviva this morning.
Since May 9, 1997, I saw that I had 1129 emails from Asher! And I
myself had sent him 789 in that same period. We also had several
hundred emails beyond that, written between November 7, 1994 and May
1997; unfortunately I used a different filing system back then, so it is
not easy to figure out how many we actually exchanged. Still, by any
measure, that's a lot of writing! (At least I have all our notes
recorded, so they can be retrieved with a sufficient effort.)
I loved him, and love him.
Best regards,
Chris
From:
Nicolas Gisin
University of Geneva
Switzerland
I knew Asher since many years. I even had the honor of
co-authoring a couple of papers with him. Let me simply tell you that I
have the greatest respect for your father.
Sincerely,
Nicolas Gisin
From:
Maurice Goldman
Villebon sur Yvette, France
I had met your father in high school in Paris (Lycee Voltaire) and then
in the jewish scouts (Eclaireurs Israelites de France), where we were in the
same patrol. I met him again when he came to Saclay to follow a course on
atomic engineering, in 1956. I had just learnt quantum mechanics and had
just joined a NMR laboratory. Asher was thirsty with acquiring a knowledge
of modern physics, whereas his father thought it safer that he becomes an
engineer, and we used to see a lot of each other in my lab during his stay,
and to ask each other riddles on quantum mechanics. I heard that he later
became a specialist in General Relativity, but otherwise we left contact.
This was resumed when he came to Paris not long ago, on an invitation by
Serge Haroche to deliver a lecture at the seminar for his course at the
College de France. I met your mother on that occasion. From then on, we had
taken the habit of sending e-mail messages to each other, just for chatting.
I have known from Serge, but also from other colleagues that your father was
very known and famous in his field, as well as in his more recent interests
in quantum computers and in quantum field theory. Your father was obviously
rather bitter about what he considered a complete lack of interest for him
among his colleagues in Israel, and the symposium for his seventy years was
a balm which proved him that he was recognized and appreciated, at least
abroad. In a few messages he sent me, he told me that he
had a very brilliant new student, and that he had good hope to be on the
track of a quantum theory of gravitation, which is still the dream of a lot
of theorists around the world (I am not in this field). I appreciated the
profundity of Asher, his genuine humanism, and his sense of humour and wit,
as witnessed in particular in the short account of his youth and his war
years, entitled "I am the cat who walks by himself", which he told me was to
be published in a special issue of "Foundations of Physics" dedicated to his
seventy years.
I am very sad indeed to learn of his passing away, and I regret in
retrospect all the years we lost contact, during which we could have had the
kind of rewarding exchange of message we had the last few years. I feel
embarrassed to send such a long message, when you and your family must have
so much to do and to worry about, but however late our e-mail relationship,
it is so dear to me that this message is to me a manifestation of my sorrow,
a kind of personal contribution to the perpetuation of your father's memory,
and a way to make him continue to live in our minds.
I address you my sincere condoleances and pray you to convey them to
your mother.
Yours very sincerely,
Maurice Goldman
From:
Robert B. Griffiths
Carnegie Mellon
Sad news indeed, and I am writing to say I very much appreciate your
communicating it to me at a time when you are under great emotional stress and
sorrow. When my own father passed away it was something we had been
expecting,
and yet the shock was enormous, and turned my world upside down. So I know
something of what you are passing through, and I hope you will accept my
condolences.
Your father was very well known and respected as a physicist, as I am
sure you are aware. I only met him a few times, but one of those was long
enough to result in a joint paper with other colleagues. What sticks in my
memory is his being extremely frank and outspoken in his opinions, more than
any other scientist I have met. You cannot fail to respect such a person,
even if you disagree with him. We are all of us poorer for not having him
among us, so allow me to share in a small way in your far greater grief.
Sincerely, Robert B. Griffiths
From:
Robert Guttman
R&D Information Coordinator
Technion
Please accept my deep condolences.
I had the honor and the pleasure to know your father and I was very sorry to
hear about his passing away.
Yours,
Robi
From:
Serge Haroche
Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris
France
We have learned with great sadness the death of
your father. I had known him through his work
much before I met him personally, a few years ago
and had a great admiration for him as a physicist.
I will not talk here about the loss for physics,
obvious to all who work in this field. Let me
just say that interacting with your father, at
the professional and even more at the personal
level was a great experience. My wife Claudine
and I have found the discussions with him always
fascinating. His humanity combined with his deep
humour made his conversation very special. We
will remember the good time we spent with him and
your mother in Paris two years ago and again in
Haifa when we came for his seventieth birthday
celebration. He looked tired then, but we could
not think that the time left was so short.
I know how the loss of a father is painful. Your
sister and you can take solace in the fact that
his death has been sudden, without too much
suffering. In french we call this "une belle
mort" if such an expression can make sense. You
will, I am sure, remember and cherish all the
good times with him. He will survive through you
and your children.
With my warm regards,
Serge Haroche
From:
James Hartle
University of California, Santa Barbara
We arrived back from a vacation in Guatemala and Honduras to
find your sad news. Please accept our condolences on
Asher's death. He and I followed a similar course in moving from
relativity to quantum mechanics. It was a privilege and an inspiration
to have known and learned from him.
Jim Hartle
From:
Ryszard Horodecki
University of Gdansk
Poland
I am shocked.
The great physicist and humanist has passed away,
so early. Why Asher is so dear to me ?
We have had a common genius loci - the city of
great scientific tradition (that time a Polish one) - Lwow (Lviv). I
always admired the power of his intuition and engineer's pragmatism
with which he had been attacking fundamental problems - the heart of
science. Without Asher it will be more difficult to restrain gradual
commercialisation of physics. It is symbolical that Asher lived to the
begining of World Year of Physics 2005 - the physics, which he loved so
much ...
Ryszard Horodecki
From:
Natania Isaak
Yad Handiv
Thank you for letting me know about the sudden passing of your dear
husband and father. According to tradition only the best people pass
away on Shabat, and especially are blessed by a sudden death without
suffering. I am not a religious person, but if there is a God he must
have loved him very much, to take him on Shabat. For you, who stay
behind, it must be hard and I hope you find the strength in the many
memories he left you to overcome the terrible pain and sadness, and
these memories will guide you in continuing to do things in his
spirit.
I myself was honoured and pleased to meet him, this modest and
pleasant professor, with a great sense of humor, who didn't believe in
wearing a tie and black leather shoes to the ceremony but still added
lots of prestige to the Prize.
Please convey my sincere condolences to the extended family and to you
I can only send my warmest thoughts and my hopes that you should know
no more sorrow.
With fondest regards,
Natania
From:
Richard Jozsa
University of Bristol
UK
I am very saddened and shocked to hear the news about Asher. I feel very
priviledged
and enriched to have known him as a friend and collaborator. His influence
will
continue for a long time to come, through so many people who have
benefitted directly
from his generosity and sense of free spirit in science.
With my deepest condolences, Richard Jozsa.
From:
Joseph Klafter
School of Chemistry
Tel Aviv University
I have just heard from Natania Isaak about your father's sudden death. It
is really shocking. What a big loss.
Your father and I received together the Rothschild prize last year.
Accept my condolences.
Yossi Klafter.
From:
John Klauder
University of Florida
Thank you for informing me of Asher's passing. I found him
creative and highly original, and along with many others will
mourn him. Please accept my sincere condolences on this sad
ocassion.
Very truly yours,
John Klauder
From:
Peter L. Knight
Imperial College, London
UK
I heard this sad news a couple of hours ago from Danny Terno. Asher
will be much missed by us all: he had an acute understanding as well
as being a wonderful person.I much appreciated his deep insights and
his warm-hearted approach to science, and his visits to the UK and to
my group at Imperial will remain treasured memories of a wonderful
man.
Peter
From:
Orit Levin-Michael
Newton, MA
I was so sad today to find that my dear friend, my teacher, my mentor
Asher is not with us any more.
Your father was a wonderful man that I was so lucky to work with. His
influence on my life is unforgettable.
Asher was a great physicist and a great man. He was like a second father to
me. It's like a piece of my life is missing now. I will remember him
forever.
I'm sorry I couldn't come to the funeral. Be strong
Orit
From:
Elena R. Loubenets
Moscow State Institute of Electronics and Mathematics
Russia
It is a great sorrow to know that
Professor Asher Peres passed away.
Please accept my deepest condolences
with this untimely and irrecoverable loss.
Professor Asher Peres was an outstanding scientist
and a very good person. He will be always missed.
Yours Sincerely,
Elena
From:
Ady Mann
Technion
Today was Asher's birthday. And there is no consolation.
Ever since Asher passed away, in the prime of his intellectual powers, two
phrases from Shakespeare keep haunting me, and I would like to use them
to express my personal sense of loss and grief:
1. "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; they kill us for their
sport." (King Lear, Act 4).
2. "He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like
again." (Hamlet, Act 1).
With deepest sympathy,
Ady
From:
Shahar Mendelson
National University of Australia
I am terribly sorry to hear that. I was meaning to email him later in
this week (I returned a few days ago from the US).
Not that it helps, but I admired him both as a scientist and as a
teacher. He will be missed by all of us.
Shahar
From:
N. David Mermin
Cornell
I received the sad news from Netanel Lindner last night and am still
finding it hard to believe. Asher was such a warm, wonderful man.
I only met him every year or two at physics conferences, but it was
always a great pleasure to be with him, and we became really good friends
in the course of many intense bursts of email interaction over the past
fifteen years. I shall miss him very much.
My heart is with you and your mother and the rest of your family.
David
From:
Allen I. Mincer
New York University
It was with great sadness that I learned from Jacques
Goldberg that Asher had passed away.
I first met Asher when I did a postdoc with Jacques' group
at the Technion in the mid 1980's. I remember then being
surprised to learn that this kind, unassuming man, whom
I recognized as the one who always came to work carrying
a pack on his back, was also a distinguished physicist
with a world-wide reputation.
As a physicist, I send you condolences on the passing
of a colleague whose work was highly regarded and
well-known in the community. But I also wish to convey my
condolences on the passing of a man who was always friendly
to a young American spending some time at the Technion, and
whom I shall remember fondly.
Sincerely,
Allen Mincer
From:
Raphael Mishan
I am shocked to read your message about the passing of your father, my
schoolmate and roommate in the Technion days. I admit that when I saw him
last, on my last visit to the Technion last year, he looked quite frail to
me and I pointed it out to him. His answer was that he was feeling all right
and I didn't press the issue any further but I was quite concerned already
then. You mention that his passing was a surprise and a shock to you. I
could only imagine how your mother Aviva took it and I am so sorry and
speechless to offer adequate condolences.
In fact, I looked forward to my forthcoming visit to Israel and the Technion
this coming spring to meet Asher as I have done on my previous visits. I
shall miss him very much and miss our chit-chat reminiscing about old days
both in the Technion and when he used to tell me how he and Aviva struggled
to clear the rocks from their property upon the purchase of the house that
you live in until today.
Please, accept my deepest condolences on behalf of my wife and myself, to
you, your sister and particularly your mother.
YEHI ZICHRO BARUCH.
Raphael Mishan
From:
Michael Nielsen
University of Queensland
Australia
This email is simply to pass my condolences on the passing of your father.
I was a professional colleague of his, and knew him for nearly 10 years.
I did not know him especially well, for our professional interests only
partially overlapped, but have fond memories of the few times we did meet
and talk. I was a beginning PhD student when we first met, and I
particularly appreciate the kindness and encouragement he showed me then.
I have posted a short remembrance on my
weblog.
Earlier this year I wrote another
piece
in which Asher makes an appearance, right at the end.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Nielsen
From:
Ian Percival
University of London
UK
I am very sorry to hear the sad news. I was an admirer
of Asher both as a scientist and a friend. I will miss
him greatly - and my thoughts are with you.
Yours sincerely
Ian Percival
From:
Murray Peshkin
Argonne National Laboratory
That is, as you said, sad and shocking. Asher will be a great loss to
the physics community both as scientific contributor and as an admirable
person. It's especially a shame that he will never see the festschrift
which is in production to honor him. Now it will be a memorial volume.
Being similar in age to Asher, I have of course experienced the loss of
my parents. There is never a good way or a good time to loseyour father
and it's always terribly painful. I'm sorry that you're now
experiencing that.
Sincerely,
Murray
From:
Lev Pitaevskiy
University of Trento
Italy
These are very sad news indeed. It is a great loss for his family and
friends, for the Technion and Israel science and for whole our
community. Asher contributed a lot in the most difficult problems of
physics and he
passed away just in the moment when his preferable branch of science
becomes the mainstream. And he was a very good man.
My deep condolence to the family and friends.
Lev Pitaevskii.
From:
Dora Pomerancblum
Technion Computer Center
I would like to express my sincere condolences about your father, Prof Asher
Peres, whom I had a privilege to work with. He was an extraordinary person
and I don't have enough words to condole you and your family on your loss.
Sincerely,
Dora.
From:
Sandu Popescu
University of Bristol
UK
I just returned from holidays and found the sad news. I am so so sorry, and
I don't know what to say. I loved Asher very much. He helped me when I was
down, and if I have today a career in physics instead of being defeated by
life is to an extremely great extent due to him. He invited me to Haifa when
I was jobless, when after my first post-doc nobody offered me a second one.
He was the first to encourage me and appreciate what I was trying to do. My
very best ideas came to me that month, during the daily bus trip from Tel
Aviv to Haifa.
Scientifically Asher was a continuous inspiration for me. My first original
paper which defined the direction of most of my research was to answer a
question raised by Asher and Bill Wootters.
In the history of physics Asher will live for ever as a great scientist.
But in my memory he will live as much more - as a great man.
How does your mother feel? Please, tell her all the best from me, as well as
from Ildi and Alma (my daughter and my wife) who both remember with great
pleasure the time when she and Asher visited us a couple of years ago.
Very warm regards,
Sandu
From:
Jacob Rubinstein
University of Indiana, Bloomington
I can tell you the following little story on him: When I started working
with you many years ago, some people warned me that it may not be a good
idea. They suspected Asher Peres will interrupt the research with
comments and criticism. I ignored them. Indeed his ability to watch you
working and developing by yourself, although the temptation to interfer
is not small at all, shows a lot about his character. When we did ask for
advice (during writing our Physica D paper) we got some very good ones. I
still use some of them whenever I write papers now.
Best regards,
Koby
From:
Emilio Santos Corchero
Universidad de Cantabria
Spain
I have known the bad news about the death of Asher Peres. He was a
great scientist and we will miss him. Please transmit my condolences to his
family and friends.
Best wishes
Emilio
From:
Larry S. Schulman
Clarkson University
I am shocked to hear the terrible news. Your father was my reason for
coming to the Technion---a paper by him and Nathan Rosen was so lovely
that I knew these were the people I wanted to be among. And I'm not sure
if you know it, but after we decided to stay and bought an apartment under
construction (and went away during its building) he oversaw the
contractor, making sure that we got 19mm iron supports for the concrete
rather than the 17mm the contractor tried to put in. A rare man.
And he was continuing to do wonderful physics, as we all saw in February,
was getting the recognition he deserved, and wonderful loyalty of his
students.
Give our sympathy to your mother and all your family. We have all lost a
wonderful friend and scientist, but you most of all.
Larry Schulman
From:
Abner Shimony
Boston University
This morning I received an email from Chris Fuchs of the death of your
father. I am shocked because I had not known he was in bad health. And I am
very sad, because he was a dear friend, for whom I had very high regard as a
physicist and strong personal affection.
We often argued about conceptual problems in quantum mechanics, but the
arguments in no way tainted our friendship. Instead, they added a little spice
to our relations.
Please give my condolences to your mother, whom I had the pleasure of
meeting in 1995, at the time of the conference in honor of Nathan Rosen, which
your father helped to organize. I sympathize deeply with her and with all of
you.
Your sad friend, Abner
From:
Laura M. Slatkin
Professor of Classics
New York University
I am utterly shocked and heartbroken to hear this terrible news.
Your father was one of the most extraordinary people I have ever
known: humane, kind, brilliant, funny, tolerant, a model of
integrity -- and an exceptional, loyal friend. I know that for his
friends this is a loss that cannot be repaired, so for you, his
family, it must be shattering, a crushing blow.
From my first meeting with him in December of 1968 -- on an airplane
from Tel Aviv to NYC -- what made the greatest impression on me was
how proud he was of the three of you, Aviva and his two little girls,
and how much he adored you all. Over these decades in every email or
conversation or meeting with him, that impression was reinforced; and
as the family grew, his pleasure and pride in it grew. I remember his
telling me, in a message last year, about your winning prizes from
Technion for the teaching of mathematics, and about a picture of a
work of art by Aviva that appeared in a professional journal, about
Nomy and all the grandchildren. I am sure it will be a comfort to
know how much happiness you all gave him.
When I heard about the international conference in his honor, and
about the Rothschild prize I was delighted! He was always so modest,
he never looked for recognition -- but of course he had a tremendous
international reputation. It was clear that what meant most to him,
though -- both personally and professionally -- were the successes of
his family and his students, to whom he gave so much.
It is not a truism but an ever more valuable truth that people
actually do live on through others' memories of them. So many, many
friends around the world will continue to think of your father and
remember him with deepest respect and affection. I feel privileged
to be one of them.
Lydia, please convey my profound sympathy to your mother and sister
and to all the family for this hardest of all human things.
thinking of you all,
Laura
From:
Ramon Munoz-Tapia, Emili Bagan and Maria Baig
Universitat Autonoma Barcelona
Spain
We have just learnt that Asher passed away on the first of January.
It was devastating news for us. As you know, our scientific interests
became very close in the last years and we are very grateful for Asher's
enthuasiasm and support about our work.
We feel very sorry for his family and of course for you, your lastest
collaborators.
Our warmest regards,
Emili Bagan, Maria Baig and Ramon Munoz-Tapia
From:
William K. Wootters
Williams
This is very sad news, and very unexpected. Thank you so much for
your note. I also got an email just now from Daniel Terno.
Your father was a wonderful person and I'm very sad that he's no
longer with us. This must be a terrible shock to the whole Peres
family. You have my deepest sympathy.
Yours,
Bill
From:
Zvi Ziegler
Technion
Please accept my condolences on the death of your father, whom I held in
great esteem.
He made a real impact on the Technion , and will be remembered as one
of the giants for a very long time indeed.
I hope you will know no further grief,
Zvi
From:
Wojciech H. Zurek
Los Alamos National Laboratory
My deepest condolences. I am deeply saddened by the news.
I have known Asher for a quarter of a century. I have
enjoyed his physics, his personality, his insights.
I will miss him.
Sincerely,
Wojciech